Cuban Connection: Nixon, Castro, and the Mob

by William Weyand Turner

In April 1959, Fidel Castro toured the United States at the invitation of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Though he was wary, Castro entertained some hope of establishing a rapprochement with Washington. But after being snubbed by President Eisenhower and receiving a less-than-cordial reception from Vice President Richard Nixon, Castro got the strong impression that US intentions toward his new Cuban government were hostile. In The Cuban Connection, former FBI agent and investigative journalist William Turner examines the fateful meeting between Castro and Nixon and the murky connections that existed between official Washington, the CIA, and organized crime in Cuba. Based on firsthand interviews with many of the key players involved in Cuban-American relations of that era, plus thorough background research, Turner raises a host of disturbing the ouster of the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista by Castro, why did Vice President Nixon often socialize at Havana casinos with his Cuban friend Bebe Rebozo? How was the rabid anticommunism of the Eisenhower administration, especially its instant dislike of Castro, connected to its cozy relationship with the former mob-controlled dictatorship? How did all of this set the stage for the Bay of Pigs fiasco and ultimately the Cuban Missile Crisis and the JFK assassination?In a vivid narrative The Cuban Connection provides insider information that rarely reaches the public and that many in power never wanted the public to know.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

319 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2013

Reviews

[Diane Gladstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read to prepare for a trip to Cuba, provided insight into the turmoil of the island country and the many US politicians who had their fingers in the country. Author was very knowledgeable about the many covert activities going on.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lot of familiar material covered here, but the one interesting elements is how VP Richard Nixon, after a contentious three-hour meeting with Fidel Castro, pushed the Cuban leader into the Soviet sphere. Castro had no real alliances except for Cuban nationalism, but the hostility he got from Nixon made him aware the US was never going to accept him as the legitimate leader of Cuba. What follows was an almost 20 year war against Castro by the CIA, Mafia, etc., to have him killed.

[Aleixander · Rating 4 out of 5]

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